


Drive-In

by noblydonedonnanoble



Category: Doctor Who (2005)
Genre: F/M
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2012-04-20
Updated: 2012-04-20
Packaged: 2017-11-03 23:19:08
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,122
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/387094
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/noblydonedonnanoble/pseuds/noblydonedonnanoble
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>He tells her that he’s bringing her to a new place, a place he knows that she’ll love.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Drive-In

                Donna mentions to him once, off-handedly, that she’s never been to a drive-in, and she supposes she’ll never be able to. She says it in a sad sort of way, as someone who doesn’t have a time machine at their disposal to amend such tragedies.

                The Doctor doesn’t think about it at first, because he’s so busy coming up with shiny new places to show Donna on other planets, in other times.

                And then it occurs to him. He could call himself stupid for not thinking of it sooner, but he’s _not_ stupid and thinks it silly to lie to himself.

                So he tells her that he’s bringing her to a new place, a place he knows that she’ll love. He tells her to wear a comfortable outfit suited for warm weather and to bring a blanket that it would be okay to get a little dirty.

                Once he’s convinced her that this is not an attempt on his part to seduce her, she agrees.

                When they step out of the TARDIS, the sun is setting and they’re at the bottom of a small hill.

                “Up you go,” the Doctor tells her cheerfully.

                She eyes him. “We’re going up a hill? Making me exercise is not the best way to start a date.”

                He reminds Donna that this is _not_ a date and nudges her along.

                When they reach the top of the hill, Donna shrieks. “Doctor! You remembered this… I always figure that you just tune me out when I’m talking to you.”

                “Unfortunately, since the chameleon circuit on the TARDIS is broken and all, we had to improvise on the car part.” He gestures to her blanket. “But this… This makes you happy?”

                She laughs a little at the very hopeful expression on the Doctor’s face. “Yes. C’mon, Spaceman, let’s sit.”

                They spread the blanket out in the grass, and as soon as they’re sitting down the Doctor pulls some popcorn out of his pocket and leans back on his elbows. Donna laughs lightly at him because as soon as he pulls it out, he grins like a five-year-old. When he holds the bag out to her, though, she politely takes some, and when she knows he’s not looking she smiles a bit herself.

                Almost as soon as the sun has set completely past the horizon, the film begins. It’s an old flick, black and white and starring Cary Grant with one of his countless leading ladies. The Doctor glances over at Donna several times—most certainly more than really is acceptable. He just can’t help himself, though, when he realizes that Donna has practically the entire script memorized. He doesn’t see much of Donna’s sappy side, but she’s following through every twist and turn of the generic romantic comedy and he can’t help but glance at her every couple of seconds because her emotions are so vivid on her face. And when she notices him watching her, she smiles. She doesn’t call him names or tease him for watching her. She seems incredibly at ease.

The Doctor sees it in her, of course, that spirit, and there’s a part of him just waiting for it to come out if he looks at her one time too many times. But he’s completely willing to play with fire. He finds himself playing with fire a lot around Donna, really. And how can he help it? He sometimes says things just to hear what clever retort she’ll come up with.

Now, though, Donna isn’t thinking about clever comments that will have the Doctor sulking, even if it is just for show. He doesn’t know that her catching him looking at her is really her sneaking glances at him. It makes her smile, the way his eyes are lingering on her. Regardless of how adamantly she declares they have a platonic relationship, she kind of likes the idea that some centuries-old spaceman from a place she couldn’t possibly _dream_ of might be unable to keep his eyes off her.

Since perhaps she’s unable to keep her eyes off him anyway.

Though she’s always careful to hide it, of course. They’ve got appearances to keep up, and both of them started out wanting nothing but a mate. That’s _still_ what she wants.

She thinks.

For the most part.

Perhaps halfway through the movie, the Doctor notices Donna shivering almost imperceptibly. With a small smile, he shimmies out of his jacket and drapes it over her shoulders, taking a moment to admire Donna in brown pinstripes, while Donna simultaneously takes a moment to appreciate the smell of the Doctor that she can immediately sense attaching itself to her skin.

Not long after that, Donna decides to lean back and mirror the Doctor who, despite having shifted several times, keeps returning to his original position, leaning back on his elbows. Someone on screen makes a joke—which Donna was, of course, waiting for over a minute and a half ago—and laughing, the Doctor and Donna both turn their heads at the same time and grin widely at each other. The Doctor abashedly looks away first, because he reminds himself he’s still playing with fire, and if he’s not careful it will go out.

The _thing_ that’s hovering above the scene is becoming increasingly palpable, and both the Doctor and Donna are doing their best to ignore it, because the Doctor doesn’t think Donna wants to be pushed and because Donna isn’t yet ready to push the Doctor. So she’s turning off her brain (or at least turning it off as much as Donna Noble can ever turn off her brain because really for all of the random _stuff_ that falls out of her mouth she really is constantly thinking about one thing or another) and focusing entirely on Cary Grant as he woos some lovely young woman, in a way that Donna once thought _perhaps_ she might get wooed—all manners and smiles from some real gentleman. Until she became too used to monotony and disappointment. Sitting beside the Doctor, she couldn’t help but wonder how she was ever okay with that dull life. She wonders what could ever possess her to leave this life, to leave the Doctor. Because this life… it’s everything to her.

With that in mind, she takes the Doctor’s hand in her own.

The film ends, with some dramatic tears from Donna that the Doctor only barely stops himself from reaching over and wiping away; he pulls out a handkerchief for her instead. Below them, the cars are all leaving the lot, but Donna and the Doctor stay planted in their positions, equally introspective. The Doctor is the first one to lie back completely, one arm angled back and supporting his head while he grips Donna’s hand tightly. She quickly follows suit, mirroring him once again.

For an eternity, or possibly for an instant, they lie there together, just staring up at the stars. It occurs to Donna, during this moment, that for the Doctor this is probably rather uninteresting, lying around on Earth looking up at the galaxy when they could be exploring and seeing interesting places. It _doesn’t_ occur to her that the Doctor could be simultaneously contemplating how refreshing it is to sit still with Donna right beside him.

“Is it strange?” Donna says eventually. “Strange to think that all of us people down here live out our lives, not knowing everything that you know.”

“Maybe it was, at first.” The Doctor chooses not to point out that even Donna, even his friends don’t know everything he knows. No one, really, knows everything he knows, be it crucial or mundane. “Mind you, I’ve had centuries to get used to the idea.”

They allow the sound of chirping crickets to monopolize the conversation. The Doctor feels slightly amazed that Donna’s being so quiet, and he desperately wants to know what she’s thinking about.

She’s wondering what it would be like to kiss him, which is certainly not on the Doctor’s _possible Donna trains of thought_ list. But she’s thinking it all the same. It’s a curious question, because when she first met him it was the last thing she considered when looking at the man, including punching and slapping and various other types of bodily harm.

Now the feeling has snuck up on her, has possibly been around for months or maybe days or hours or minutes or _seconds_. All she knows is that at the moment, she’s terrified to look him in the eye because she feels so close to doing something dangerous. The Doctor is not the only one playing with fire.

In a moment, Donna could change the mood. She could poke fun at something miniscule—she can hear his hearts beating, he’s shivering a little bit now from the absence of his jacket, his breathing is in sync with hers. But his hearts are beating so very fast and she knows it’s because of her. He’s shivering because _she’s_ wearing his jacket. And the fact that he’s breathing in sync with her… Well. That’s leading away from teasing far too fast. Or leading too far toward another sort of teasing.

And so she opts for silence, leaving the Doctor to wonder.

Despite all of their internal stress, the atmosphere is peaceful. The Doctor is clinging to Donna’s hand and she’s holding on just as tightly. Their breathing is indeed in sync, but it’s slow breathing. For all of their confusion, they are completely relaxed together.

“So tell me, Donna, was this drive-in acceptable for you?” The Doctor turns his head in her direction and the smile that spreads across her face makes him so happy.

“Not exactly a drive-in, Doctor, since we weren’t in a car. But yes, I suppose it was acceptable.”

“Wow.” The Doctor grins wide. “I pleased the great Donna Noble. My life goal has now been achieved.”

It’s at this precise moment that Donna decides to disregard her concerns—she turns her head and meets his eye and they’re both grinning.

And in that moment, the mood between them changes. Both of them are still carefully regarding their fires; Donna still doesn’t want to push The Doctor, and he is still oblivious. But they’re also almost to the point where they’re willing to throw caution to the wind.

“I don’t appreciate the evident sarcasm in that statement.”

The Doctor’s thumb grazes her palm, and the slight touch sends shivers through her arm. She does her best to ignore it. “Are you implying that you’re the only one allowed to be snarky?”

Of course not. Donna loves it when the Doctor is snarky. Both because he always has clever things to say, and because it means she can say something clever in response. That’s not what she says, though. “What if I am?”

His eyes are on her mouth. He takes in her lips, a slightly protruding tongue and her teeth biting down on it. She looks so pleased with herself—as she often does—and he’s possessed with the sudden urge to wipe that smug look off her face. By any means necessary.

And then he’s pressed his lips against hers and he’s rolling onto his side and then he’s practically on top of her. He’s still holding her hand tight, and with her other hand she’s tugging on his hair, pulling at bits and pieces and presumably making it look even more erratic than it generally does. He groans into her mouth, and she can’t stop smiling because dear Lord for once she didn’t have to do anything and things are going the way that she wants them to without any sort of immense nudging from her, like with Lance. Her thoughts have either come to a stand-still or are racing at such a great pace that she subconsciously gave up on following them. In any case, somehow the Doctor has actually stopped her from thinking. And she loves it.

His mouth wanders away from hers, across her cheekbone, down her neck. As he reaches her collarbone, he stops and returns to her mouth, causing Donna to let slip a sigh of frustration.

This causes the Doctor to pull away slightly, and they spend a moment in silence, just examining each others’ faces. Donna thinks he looks slightly stunned, as though he was expecting her to push him away and most likely slap him. The Doctor thinks she looks pleased. And she is.

“Donna, is this still not a date?”

She laughs, because of any question that could come out of his mouth, that’s not the one she was expecting. “Well, Spaceman, I suppose maybe this could be viewed as a date.”

He grins and returns to her neck.


End file.
